Why are Glenn Beck ratings down this week?

I ask because the ironclad Beltway CW this week has been that the White House's decision to fact-check Fox News has been a huge tactical mistake, partly because it will simply spike Fox News' ratings.

"Beck and O'Reilly were nearly orgiastic. Every presidential harrumph sends their ratings through the roof," announced columnist Michael Wolff. (He mocked the the anti-Fox News as being "ass-backward.") And trust me, everyone has been hitting that note this week about the sure-fire ratings boon for Fox News. It's an automatic.

But if that's true, shouldn't the White House attacks on Fox News be driving up Glenn Beck, the channel's hottest hitter, ratings-wise? Shouldn't Beck's Nielsen overnights be shooting into the stratosphere, climbing maybe 20, 30, even 40 percent, thanks to the PR bonanza that the White House gift wrapped the channel?

Well, guess what? Glenn Beck ratings are not up this week. In fact, they're down as compared to last week even though the topic of the White House/Fox News fueled has exploded this week across the media landscape. All the pundits who announced the White House completely screwed up by fact-checking Fox News, were sure Fox News' ratings were going to soar. Except they haven't. Instead, they've gone down this week.

Last week, Beck's show averaged 2.9 million viewers, which is consistent with the viewership Beck has been drawing for several weeks now. So far this week, the show is drawing 2.6 million viewers. It's a small dip, to be sure. But again, the pundits have been in heated agreement that the Fox News ratings were going to skyrocket thanks to the administration's obvious blunder. But Beck's ratings certainly have not. And overall, Fox News' total day audience has also dipped slightly, from 1.4 million last week, to 1.3 million so far this week.

So I'll ask again, why are Glenn Beck ratings down this week?

UPDATED: For additional context, two week's ago, prior to the public White House/Fox News dispute, Glenn Beck averaged 2.6 million viewers, which is what he's averaging so far this week. In other words, since the controversy erupted, and since pundits announced it would produce a huge ratings gain, Glenn Beck's numbers haven't changed much.

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EricBoehlert
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A Senior Fellow for Media Matters, Boehlert is the author of Bloggers On the Bus: How The Internet Changes Politics and the Press, and Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush. Previously, he wrote on staff for Salon and Rolling Stone.

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